Battle of Altera Domi
The Battle of Altera Domi '''was a battle in the Primogenii-Inimica War that happened over the heavily-populated Primogenii colony world of Altera Domi. Despite significant resources and preparation being put in place by the Primogenii, unprecended tactics utilised by the Inimica resulted in its decisive victory. Background After the disaster of the Inimica Rebellium, the Primogenii Empire Council prepared a large response fleet, and dispatched it to the nearest world to Domus Lumina: Altera Domi. Due to the Primogenii’s confidence of victory, the planet was not evacuated, despite pressure to do so. Events After days of waiting, with no Inimica activity reported elsewhere, the Inimica fleet jumped into the ''X''''' system, and immediately scrambled all Scipio-class fighters aboard its ships. Unknown to the Primogenii, the Inimica had also strategically jumped a handful of its Custodia-class battleships separately behind the systems star, protecting them from detection by Primogenii scans, and placing them closer to the system’s asteroid belt. As the Inimica fleet approached the planet, Primogenii ships closed in from multiple angles of attack, their Scipio-class fighters scrambled and assembled into huge attack swarms. The two fleets then began to open fire on each other with different priorities: The Primogenii in general targeted the Inimica Contender-class warships, hoping to remove them from play and as a result disable the Scipio fighters they were hosting. The Inimica was aiming only to damage and disable ships in order to infect them later, being currently unable to do so due to newly developed Primogenii countermeasures installed aboard the entire fleet. The full battle continued for some time, with each side making relatively little headway due to their targeting priorities and the sheer strength of Primogenii-built shields. However, the tide was turned when the Inimica’s extra Custodia battleships joined the battle. As they arrived, the Primogenii Contender warships suddenly found themselves in the path of incoming asteroids. The Inimica, having sensed the difficulty of the battle, had placed some of its Custodia warships out of detection and near to the systems asteroid belt, then used the gravity slings aboard those ships to tow large asteroids across the entire system and launch them at the Primogenii fleet. Due to the mass of the Primogenii Contender-classes, they found themselves unable to manoeuvre out of the path of the incoming asteroids. Three were destroyed immediately on contact, with the asteroid depleting their shields and then continuing to tear through their hulls, splitting the ships in half. A few other Contenders fared only slightly better due to their course and the path of their incoming asteroids, allowing them to suffer only shield depletion or hull damage rather than outright destruction. By the end of the battle, the Primogenii fleet lay in ruin. Four of the Contenders were outright destroyed, whilst the other three were captured by the Inimica. Of the twenty-seven Custodia battleships, fourteen had been destroyed whilst the other thirteen had been captured. Conversely, only seven of the Inimica's Custodias were destroyed, and none of it's Contenders were damaged; only one severely damaged. The Inimica fleet them set about bombarding Altera Domi, eliminating planetary defences and then wiping out cities and population centres. Aftermath The battle had profound implications on the Primogenii. What was meant to be an assured victory had turned into a loss of not only military assets, but also one of their main colonies, inhabited by billions. Military strategies employed by the Primogenii, which had always proven effective in the seldom cases they needed to be used due to the power of their ships, were no longer effective against the Inimica. Analysis of the battle led to significant changes in Primogenii strategy. In future engagements, the Primogenii would try to avoid situations were the Inimica could use asteroid launching as a viable tactic. As this would not always be possible, the Primogenii began research into methods of installing shock absorbers onto their Contenders in order to protect them against impacts.